Culinary consulting is growing for restaurant owners as well as chefs

When Jill Weber and Evan Malone hired Matt Zagorski, then chef at Rouge, to consult on their new restaurant Rex 1516, they knew they were getting a chef who could help them with staffing, health inspections, purveyor connections, and food costs. The fact that they scored the ingredients to the burger blend that he custom created for his own restaurant, Hickory Lane, was a bonus. A burger is something one can stake a reputation on. “Some people wouldn’t do that,” Zagorski says. “But I’ll go to those lengths for Jill.” Zagorski is part of a less-discussed but prevalent aspect of Philadelphia’s restaurant structure: culinary consultants. Restaurant owners who are just starting out, looking to create a new program, or hoping to fix situations before they resemble reality TV are turning to experts. Chefs, managers, operators, sommeliers and bartenders are lending out their skills for these quick-hit, quick-payday jobs.